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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Ladies and gentlemen, it’s good to be Peter Nelson.
Not only can the guy reach into a briefcase and pluck a resume with the word “HARVARD” scrawled across the top in big crimson letters, but he’s also pulled off what might just be the coolest college major/real job metamorphosis of all time.
Just think, one day you’re in Massachusetts slogging through a semester of ancient and classical Greek language and literature. And the next you’re in New York helping assemble a roster of boxing talent that’s returned HBO to a long-professed spot as premium cable’s “Network of Champions.”
No offense to the Byzantine-philes in the crowd, but it looks from here like Nelson’s landed on his feet.
These days, as vice president of sports programming, he’s got a behind-the-scenes seat as the three-lettered juggernaut endeavors to build Nicaraguan dynamo Roman Gonzalez into something that might resemble Manny Pacquiao 2.0.
You remember that barrier-breaking drill, right?
One day he’s a small guy from another country. The next day he’s a global phenomenon.
“Manny made significant strides in that respect,” Nelson said. “He fought so many great Mexican fighters along the way that I think he became someone that the Latino community came to embrace. You saw a similar kind of thing occur with Golovkin when he said that he fights in a Mexican style, and you saw that a lot of fans in the Mexican community were embracing Golovkin.
“In boxing – and tennis has this to some degree as well – there’s kind of a Genghis Khan effect that occurs where if you’ve defeated someone I admire that I start to like you and I start to root for you. It’s a wonderful sport in that respect because it’s not as narrow as ‘I’m going to root for this person because he’s from the same place as I’m from.’ I think there’s a greater expanse of what a fighter’s fan base can achieve in that respect.” [Click Here To Read More]
Not only can the guy reach into a briefcase and pluck a resume with the word “HARVARD” scrawled across the top in big crimson letters, but he’s also pulled off what might just be the coolest college major/real job metamorphosis of all time.
Just think, one day you’re in Massachusetts slogging through a semester of ancient and classical Greek language and literature. And the next you’re in New York helping assemble a roster of boxing talent that’s returned HBO to a long-professed spot as premium cable’s “Network of Champions.”
No offense to the Byzantine-philes in the crowd, but it looks from here like Nelson’s landed on his feet.
These days, as vice president of sports programming, he’s got a behind-the-scenes seat as the three-lettered juggernaut endeavors to build Nicaraguan dynamo Roman Gonzalez into something that might resemble Manny Pacquiao 2.0.
You remember that barrier-breaking drill, right?
One day he’s a small guy from another country. The next day he’s a global phenomenon.
“Manny made significant strides in that respect,” Nelson said. “He fought so many great Mexican fighters along the way that I think he became someone that the Latino community came to embrace. You saw a similar kind of thing occur with Golovkin when he said that he fights in a Mexican style, and you saw that a lot of fans in the Mexican community were embracing Golovkin.
“In boxing – and tennis has this to some degree as well – there’s kind of a Genghis Khan effect that occurs where if you’ve defeated someone I admire that I start to like you and I start to root for you. It’s a wonderful sport in that respect because it’s not as narrow as ‘I’m going to root for this person because he’s from the same place as I’m from.’ I think there’s a greater expanse of what a fighter’s fan base can achieve in that respect.” [Click Here To Read More]
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